1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor memory device such as a NAND type flash memory, and more particularly to a semiconductor memory device having a function of transmitting data at startup of a system or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A NAND type flash memory comprises a memory cell array consisting of a plurality of NAND strings, each of which comprises a plurality of memory cells connected in serial. The NAND type flash memory can be used to achieve a highly integrated memory cell array as compared to a NOR type flash memory, and thus the NAND type flash memory is suitable for use in storing large volumes of data such as image data and music data. In addition to the use described above, the NAND type flash memory can also be used as a memory for providing boot codes at startup of an electronic apparatus or a system. The boot codes are data used for starting up an operating system of a host-side electronic apparatus or system.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system configuration of a conventional semiconductor memory (Patent Document 1) which can output boot codes to a host system. As shown in FIG. 1A, a semiconductor memory 10 comprises an input/output pin 12, a memory controller 14 and a memory part 16. The input/output pin 12 is used to input/output data between the semiconductor memory 10 and a host device 30. The memory controller 14 comprises: a host interface 20, transmitting data to and receiving data from the host device 30 through the input/output pin 12; a memory interface 22, transmitting data to and receiving data from the memory part 16; a micro processing unit (MPU) 24, controlling data transmission; a read only memory (ROM) 26 storing program codes and data; and a random access memory (RAM) 28. The memory part 16 comprises 2 chips, such as NAND type flash memory chips. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1B, the memory part 16 comprises a physical access area 16A that can be accessed by using a physical address and a logical access area 16B that can be accessed by using a logical address. Boot codes of the host device 30 are stored in the physical access area 16A. The boot codes are data used for starting up (booting) the operating system of the host device 30. According to the configuration described above, the boot codes can be provided to the host device 30 in a case where the host device 30 corresponds only to a physical access method.